Milk and Cookies

Do you want the good news or the bad news first?

Okay, here’s the bad news: Turkey’s artificial flavors are simply not up to par with America’s.

I came to this startling conclusion after discovering that the strawberry milk here is… well, frankly it sucks. I have a weakness for strawberry milk, so when I saw some at the grocery store I was overjoyed that the flavored milk phenomenon had spread to Turkey. Imagine my disappointment when I took a sip and it tasted nothing like strawberries!

I’m not naïve enough to think that strawberry milk is made from actual strawberries, but after a home experiment of sorts last year, I concluded that American strawberry milk does in fact taste like strawberries blended in milk (oh yeah, you also have to add a lot of sugar).

Anyway, back to the issue at hand. I assumed that Turkey simply hadn’t caught on to the whole artificial strawberry flavor craze, and so stores were justified in selling mediocre strawberry milk. Little did I know, this artificial flavor issue transcends the lactose industry and even infects the cookie business!

First I tried some strawberry-flavored wafer cookies. They tasted just as weird as the milk. So I figured it was simply an issue with the strawberry flavoring they use here in Turkey. Then I tried some chocolate cookies, and to my dismay they tasted very little like chocolate. As if it could get any worse after the strawberry milk…

Well, I learned my lesson and I now try to avoid fake strawberry and fake chocolate flavoring. I’m sure you’re feeling very bad for me at this point, so are you ready for the good news?

Well, here it is: cookies are incredibly cheap in Turkey.

They mostly sell cookies in sleeves, and each sleeve only costs between .50TL and 1TL ($0.30-$.60!). How big are these sleeves you wonder? The perfect size: just big enough to make me feel sufficiently terrible about myself for finishing a whole pack (each sleeve has at least 500 calories). Fortunately, the nutrition labels here say “Energy” instead of “Calories,” so that means the cookies are good for me, right?

What’s even better is that there is so much cookie diversity. There are tons of different flavors, textures, shapes, styles, and ingredients. My current favorite is called “Albeni” and is basically a knock-off of Samoas, my favorite Girl Scout Cookie.

I would have posted a picture of an unopened pack, but they never make it back to my room in that state. 

So, on the whole, I can’t be too upset with the artificial flavor thing. I suppose I will just have to stoop to the level of eating real strawberries and chocolate.